4 thoughts on “Weekday Squib: Techniques to avoid extradition”

Salem’s girlfriend Monica Bedi was secretly filmed naked in the bathroom of Bhopal jail, and the images were telecast by Zee News. The channel defended its action by claiming that it was “exposing the misuse of spy cameras”. Bedi went to Supreme Court and managed to obtain an injunction against further broadcast of the pictures by the TV channel.

There was nary a squeal of protest from the vocal, self-appointed defenders of our freedoms, viz, the media, predictably because one of their own is involved in the racket. The incident was deemed too unimportant to be commented upon. The reasoning seems to be that a gangster’s girlfriend — not exactly being the legally wedded wife of a respectable person — has no right to privacy, and is fair game to be humiliated in public. Newspapers, barring exceptions like The Pioneer, carried no editorials demanding to know how will Zee be made to pay for its abuse of press freedom, and whether jail authorities will be held accountable for the crime.

TV is becoming the bane of the country. Far from promoting decorum and debate, TV cameras in parliament changed the behaviour of the MPs for the worse. I was just reading about the effect of TV cameras on crowds here and here. Unfortunate results of the Hawthorne effect.

This is the dark side of TV news channels. There should be a bright side. I suppose that involves round-the-clock coverage of a boy who fell into a well. At least the Army was called in to pull him out.

Nitin, I am not only on the behavior of TV channels but on the issue of our editorial classes’ claimed commitment to liberal values.

As we know there is a double standard at work in our society. Even educated people — generally respectful of women — consider some categories of women (eg: women of “loose morals”, “fast girls”, models, film stars and celebrities) as legitimate targets of unwanted attention and abuse. My contention is that the media is no different in its attitudes, its pretensions to liberalism notwithstanding. I believe that if Zee’s victim was a woman regarded as respectable, there would have been some sort of reaction from the rest of the media. But most papers reported Bedi’s discomfiture in desultory, amused tones.

What then to make of the routine show of commitment to liberal values in op-ed pages? I contend that is just politics. Vast reservoirs of “moral outrage” are tapped into, for instance, when Shiv Sena activists vandalize shops selling Valentine’s Day cards. Our editors are consummate hypocrites. They don’t genuinely believe in what they routinely mouth.

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Salem’s girlfriend Monica Bedi was secretly filmed naked in the bathroom of Bhopal jail, and the images were telecast by Zee News. The channel defended its action by claiming that it was “exposing the misuse of spy cameras”. Bedi went to Supreme Court and managed to obtain an injunction against further broadcast of the pictures by the TV channel.

There was nary a squeal of protest from the vocal, self-appointed defenders of our freedoms, viz, the media, predictably because one of their own is involved in the racket. The incident was deemed too unimportant to be commented upon. The reasoning seems to be that a gangster’s girlfriend — not exactly being the legally wedded wife of a respectable person — has no right to privacy, and is fair game to be humiliated in public. Newspapers, barring exceptions like The Pioneer, carried no editorials demanding to know how will Zee be made to pay for its abuse of press freedom, and whether jail authorities will be held accountable for the crime.

Nitin

Oldtimer,

TV is becoming the bane of the country. Far from promoting decorum and debate, TV cameras in parliament changed the behaviour of the MPs for the worse. I was just reading about the effect of TV cameras on crowds here and here. Unfortunate results of the Hawthorne effect.

This is the dark side of TV news channels. There should be a bright side. I suppose that involves round-the-clock coverage of a boy who fell into a well. At least the Army was called in to pull him out.

Oldtimer

Nitin, I am not only on the behavior of TV channels but on the issue of our editorial classes’ claimed commitment to liberal values.

As we know there is a double standard at work in our society. Even educated people — generally respectful of women — consider some categories of women (eg: women of “loose morals”, “fast girls”, models, film stars and celebrities) as legitimate targets of unwanted attention and abuse. My contention is that the media is no different in its attitudes, its pretensions to liberalism notwithstanding. I believe that if Zee’s victim was a woman regarded as respectable, there would have been some sort of reaction from the rest of the media. But most papers reported Bedi’s discomfiture in desultory, amused tones.

What then to make of the routine show of commitment to liberal values in op-ed pages? I contend that is just politics. Vast reservoirs of “moral outrage” are tapped into, for instance, when Shiv Sena activists vandalize shops selling Valentine’s Day cards. Our editors are consummate hypocrites. They don’t genuinely believe in what they routinely mouth.

Nitin

Oldtimer,

Indeed. At the risk of generalisng, save a few honourable exceptions, for the most, their “-isms” are either out of convenience or expedience. Any “-ism”, not just liberalism.